SAN JOSE, California,
October 10, 2001 -SABER, a business unit of Schlumberger Limited (NYSE:SLB)
that provides engineering outsourcing and professional project management
services for the semiconductor industry, and SynTest Technologies, Inc.,
the leading supplier of DFT (Design-for-Test) tools and services for integrated
circuit (IC) designers and foundries, today announced they have formed
a strategic marketing alliance. The alliance gives customers a way to
bridge the gap between DFT insertion and test engineering services for
chip designs that require complex test and verification solutions. By
working together, SABER and SynTest become the first team to offer cohesive
methodology consultation and test engineering services to take chip designs
from DFT to final test.
SynTest offers the industry's broadest spectrum of DFT tools and services,
allowing IC designers to implement DFT solutions that improve testability
and debug solutions and make the validation and debug of the new design
much faster and simpler. Fault information gathered from the test platforms
in the validation process must feed back information to the DFT tools
to pinpoint the fault in the new design. This is often an iterative process
of extracting fault information, feeding it back to the DFT tools, then
taking a new stimulus provided by the DFT tools to the test platform to
trace the fault in the new design. SABER will provide services to integrate
the link between the DFT tools and the ATE platform to make tracing the
fault seamless. Through these diagnostic services SABER will be able to
directly acquire timing and waveform data from the new design to correlate
the faults from the DFT tools to the physical design. SABER also provides
complete test engineering services, including first silicon validation,
device characterization, test program development and deployment.
"During the validation of faults SABER engineers will be able to
feed fault signatures from the tester back to SynTest DFT tools in order
to pinpoint the specific problem in the design. SABER's diagnostic experts
can then correlate the faults with the DFT tools and repair the fault
on the IC," stated Tom Ho, vice president and general manager, SABER.
"With this alliance, we can streamline the critical step from DFT
to final test, combining the latest technologies and years of experience
to ensure high test coverage while saving time and reducing cost."
"Our alliance with SABER is the next logical step in the evolution
of SynTest," according to SynTest president and CEO, LT Wang. "We
are constantly pushing the test technology envelope; now we can present
our customers with an unbeatable pairing of tools and services to solve
the most complex IC design and test issues in the market today."
About SABER
Part of a business unit of Schlumberger Limited, SABER is the pioneer
consulting and engineering outsourcing firm, leveraging advanced technology
and in-depth industry knowledge to provide mission critical services to
the semiconductor industry. Offering round-the-clock, across-the-globe
consultation and implementation, SABER's multi-platform services, professional
project management, engineering expertise, worldwide facilities and Internet-based
interactive collaboration services capability enable customers throughout
the world to improve time to market. Additional information can be found
at www.slb.com/saber.
About SynTest
SynTest Technologies, Inc. develops and markets DFT tools and offers consulting
services throughout the world to semiconductor companies, ASIC designers,
and test groups. The company's products and services improve an electronic
design's testability and fault coverage and result in not only reduced
defect levels and costly tester time, but also reduced slippage in time-to-market.
SynTest has offices in Korea, Taiwan, and the United States, and distribution
partners/representatives in Canada, Israel, France, Italy, the UK, Japan
and Singapore.
For more information, visit www.syntest.com.
Acronyms and definitions:
ASIC: Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
DFT: Design-for-Test
IC: Integrated Circuit
SABER is a registered trademark of Schlumberger. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.